ARSONISTS have caused thousands of pounds worth of damage to a popular Asian community centre.

The blaze swept through the wooden building at the Ramakrishna Vivekananda Mission UK Centre, on Hooton Street, Daubhill, completely destroying two rooms and heavily smoke-logging the main hall.

Books in a storeroom were set on fire after the firebugs had broken in on Saturday night.

Roy Choudhuri, president of the centre, said he felt "shell-shocked" when he was woken by a phone call from firefighters to be told of the news in the early hours of Sunday morning.

He added: "The centre is unusable and it will be some time before we'll be able to see the full extent of the damage."

Firefighters were called out at 12.30am to tackle the blaze and remained there dampening down until 2.55am.

Three fireengines from Bolton North and Farnworth fire stations were sent to tackle the blaze.

They battled with the fierce flames to prevent them spreading to the main hall.

Police are investigating the fire and it occurred a month before the centre's users were due to move to new premises in the town.

A resident in Hooton Street, who called the fire brigade but did not want to be named, said: "It was frightening in case the whole lot went up. The heat would have damaged the houses round about.

"It's a terrible thing to have happened."